Nease filets Fleming Island

Tebow accounts for 7 TDs in 50-9 Panthers win

GREEN COVE SPRINGS -- On Friday night, Fleming Island had homecoming festivities without any coming home and a defense without much, well, defense.

Nease spoiled first-year FIHS' "inaugural celebration" with the Panthers scoring on seven of their nine possessions en route to a 50-9 victory.

"I was so proud of our kids," Nease coach Craig Howard said. "They played the way they're supposed to, came over and played a homecoming game on the road and won going away."

Nease improved to 5-1 with the win, which equals its total for the last two years combined. It was a nice rebound for the Panthers, who lost for the first time last week, 52-35 to St. Augustine.

"When you suffer a defeat when you have high expectations like we did last week, you sometimes go in feeling sorry for yourself," Howard said. "But our kids didn't. That shows a sign of maturity in the program."

It didn't take long for Nease to show its power on offense.

The Panthers scored just one minute into the game on a 52-yard pass from Tim Tebow to Will Oakley.

On the play, Tebow scrambled and finally threw the ball to Oakley around the FIHS 30. Oakley took advantage of some downfield blocking and did the rest of the work himself to get Nease on the board.

Doug Barber made the best of a bad snap on the extra-point attempt and lofted a pass to Spencer Smith for two points as Nease led 8-0.

FIHS (1-5) responded with a 32-yard field goal by Aaron Locke to make it 8-3, but the Golden Eagles wouldn't score again until Nease had 35 more points.

After struggling last week against SAHS, the Nease defense turned in a strong performance.

Jason Lombardo and Matt Staver each had a sack for Nease. Andrew Page blocked a field goal at the end of the first half and also recovered a fumble.

"We were trying to scoop and score, make big plays," Page said.

The sooner the defense can get the ball back for the offense, the sooner the Panthers can get some more points, Page said.

"It's huge because our offense is so explosive," Page said of forcing turnovers. "Our defense was working for our offense. If we play good, they're going to play great."

With the way Nease played when it had the ball, all the Panthers had to do was slow FIHS.

Tebow and Oakley did most of the damage for Nease.

After the first-quarter score, Oakley added his second touchdown of the game in the third quarter on a 20-yard pass from Tebow that made the score 43-3. Oakley had seven catches for 158 yards and added a 37-yard punt return that set up his third-quarter score.

Tebow finished 13 of 19 passing with four touchdowns and no interceptions for 242 yards. He ran for 140 yards and three scores.

Ryan Ellis also had a big game for Nease. He caught an 11-yard slant for a touchdown in the second quarter that made it 15-3.

That score was followed by Tebow touchdown runs of 45 and 25 yards as Nease went to halftime with a 29-3 lead.

Ellis and Tebow hooked up again in the third quarter for a 20-yard touchdown play to make it 36-3.

Oakley 's second score made it a 40-point game with 3:24 left in the third quarter.

FIHS finally found the end zone on Chris Burnette's 5-yard run with 7:44 remaining in the game.

Tebow capped the scoring with a 1-yard plunge into the end zone with 1:20 left.